diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index 75342e9bc0..c54bf0720a 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -547,7 +547,7 @@
   startup.processKillAndExit = function() {
     process.exitCode = 0;
     process.exit = function(code) {
-      if (NativeModule.require('util').isNumber(code))
+      if (code || code === 0)
         process.exitCode = code;
 
       if (!process._exiting) {
diff --git a/test/simple/test-process-exit-recursive.js b/test/simple/test-process-exit-recursive.js
index 556ab13903..ba5b5dc5b0 100644
--- a/test/simple/test-process-exit-recursive.js
+++ b/test/simple/test-process-exit-recursive.js
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ process.on('exit', function(code) {
   assert.equal(code, 1);
 
   // now override the exit code of 1 with 0 so that the test passes
-  process.exit();
+  process.exit(0);
 });
 
 process.exit(1);